EC Time Management - Tips & Hints: Different Notifications for Approval and Cancellation Workflows in Time Off

[HGB]

Problem Statement

In our instance we have activated the Cancellation workflow. That allows the same process of approval to be followed when a leave is cancelled, just like when applying for leave.

So what happens is that the system does not have a functionality to define a custom notification for Cancellation workflow. Rather it follows the same steps as applying which will trigger the same notifications as in applying.

Please advise if there is a workaround where we can use the Cancellation workflow and still define custom notifications that will have details of cancellations.

 

Solution Proposal

To trigger different workflow email notifications out of the Time Off approval and cancellation workflows, respectively, two separate workflow configurations are required. With each workflow configuration, you can define different notifications, then, by setting up and assigning specific Workflow Email Configurations to them.

Out of the box, the Time Type object unfortunately only has one field ‘Workflow Configuration’ for employee self-service, which is used for both the approval and the cancellation workflow. In addition, there is another field ‘Admin Workflow Configuration’ on the Time Type object, which is meant for time off requests submitted by an administrator.

Now, to assign the proper workflow configuration for employee self-service, depending on whether the use case is approval or cancellation, you first need to add a custom field for the ‘Cancellation Workflow Configuration’ to the Time Type object. The custom field details can be copied from the details of standard field ‘Workflow Configuration’:



In Manage Data, the new custom field can then be maintained for all time types where the cancellation workflow has been enabled.



To actually set the workflow configuration when a time off request is submitted, a Save Rule at the object definition of the Employee Time object is required. This Save Rule is a must-have configuration to trigger workflows for time off requests, as described in the Time Off implementation guide.





Now, to set different workflow configurations on approval and cancellation, respectively, you need to replace the standard Save Rule that is delivered with Time Off with a customer-specific rule. The customer-specific Save Rule could e.g. look like this:



Following this approach, it should be possible to define custom notifications that will have the proper wording and details for time off approvals and cancellations, respectively.